General Motors is proceeding to the next step with respect to the sale of Saturn. A number of potential buyers have surfaced and expressed interest in the Saturn brand and retailer network. GM will be reviewing expressions of interest from the potential buyers and will look to secure an agreement with a specific buyer later this year. S.J. Girsky & Co. has been retained by GM as advisor for this transaction. Saturn will continue to
keep its retailers updated on its progress throughout this process.

Last Friday, while a team of lawyers were presenting opening motions for Chrysler in a bankruptcy court in Manhattan, company executives were introducing dealers to the auto maker’s new financing partner: GMAC.

Vice Chairman Jim Press and sales chief Steve Landry appeared in a webcast to dealers to discuss the company’s sales, and sitting right there with them on camera was William Muir, president of GMAC Financial Services – better known as the lending affiliate of Chrysler’s long-time rival GM.

The switch was prompted by the winding down of lending by Chrysler Financial, which has operated as a separate and independent company from Chrysler since Cerberus acquired the auto maker in 2007. Like Chrysler, Chrysler Financial has struggled and is now suspending its lending business in the wake of Chrysler’s bankruptcy filing.

So now Chrysler the auto company is bringing in GMAC to provide loans to car buyers in place of Chrysler Financial. In the webcast, Mr. Press pinned a Chrysler pin on Mr. Muir’s lapel and joked that GMAC should change its name to General Motors and Chrysler Acceptance Corporation, dealers who watched the webcast said.

GMAC is emailing paperwork to Chrysler’s 3,200 dealer to get them switched over as quickly as possible. Although it is winding its lending, Chrysler Financial, will continue to service existing loans and leases on Chrysler vehicles.

Ford Motor Co. said Thursday that a Chrysler LLC bankruptcy filing will not force the Dearborn, Mich. auto maker to request the kind of government loans that have propped up operations at Chrysler and General Motors Corp. since December.

“I think we’ve always been pretty clear that the risk was in an uncontrolled bankruptcy,” Ford spokesman Mark Truby said, adding that President’s Obama’s speech described the bankruptcy as quick and controlled.

Last week, Ford said it likely wouldn’t need a government bailout in reporting a smaller-than-expected $1.4 billion loss for the first quarter. But it warned that an uncontrolled bankruptcy reorganization of GM or Chrysler could change that by taking down their shared networks of suppliers and dealers.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, Ford said “our teams are monitoring the situation and have been working hard for months to ensure that the external environment and industry restructuring do not slow progress on our Ford transformation plan, which remains solid and unchanged. The company added that “at this time, we do not expect any disruptions to our operations as a result of today’s news.”

Chrysler filed its Chapter 11 petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on Thursday. Judge Arthur Gonzalez, who oversaw the massive bankruptcy of Enron Corp., will handle the Chrysler’s case. Law firm Jones Day is serving as the company’s bankruptcy counsel. Lawyers for auto maker will appear before Gonzalez for the first time at a 10 a.m. EDT hearing Friday.

The auto maker sought court protection after it failed to get all of its lenders, owed $6.9 billion, to sign on to a debt-restructuring deal ahead of a Thursday deadline imposed by the White House.

President Barack Obama is ready to talk further about the struggling U.S. auto industry and what the government is doing to save it. Obama scheduled remarks at 12 noon EDT as Chrysler LLC nears a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Thursday to have deals in place with labor, creditors and Italian auto maker Fiat. It seems the only remaining hurdle is a small group of debtholders — holding out for a better deal from Washington. Without a deal, Chrysler probably will have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The agreement between Chrysler and the UAW appears to put the auto maker’s secured lenders under pressure because a debt-reduction deal is now the only major obstacle keeping the company from restructuring outside of bankruptcy court.

Michigan’s Congressional delegation of two senators and 15 members of the House of Representatives is now trying underscore that notion that the Chrysler’s fate now depends on the banks’ response.

In a just-released joint statement, they said the banks and other lenders “now have an opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to Main Street America.

Chrysler is days away from a possible bankruptcy and its dealers are worried about how they’ll stay in business if the company goes under. To give dealers some reason for hope, the company recently brought a group into its design dome at its headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. and showed them the models it has in the works.

Among them was the redesigned Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was shown at the New York auto show, and an updated version of its Chrysler 300 sedan. Also in the mix, according to a person who attended the session, was a sporty little sedan — made by Fiat, Chrysler’s alliance partner to be.

Ralph Gilles, Chrysler’s head of design, told the dealers the company plans to have its own version of the car, this person said. It will use a chassis Fiat developed but will have exterior sheet metal designed by Chrysler, this person said.

Chrysler is counting on Fiat to provide chassis for several small cars, but there’s no guarantee –yet — that this small sedan will show up in Chrysler showrooms because the alliance isn’t sealed yet. Chrysler needs to work out a debt-cutting deal with banks and other secured lenders by Thursday to have a chance of finalizing the Fiat partnership and getting additional loans from the U.S. government.

Chrysler doesn’t have a small sedan in its line up now. It has lacked one since 2006 when Chrysler retired the Dodge Neon and replaced it with a compact hatchback, the Dodge Caliber. This is a segment that remains strategically important even though gasoline prices have fallen back to about $2 a gallon in the last year. Many young and first-time new-car buyers purchase small sedans, and without one Chrysler has been at a disadvantage.

While its competitors are on the ropes, Ford got an additional boost Monday from two Wall Street analysts who bumped up their outlook for the company.

On Friday, Ford posted a first-quarter net loss of $1.4 billion. Importantly, cash burn – a constant threat to the company’s liquidity – dropped to $3.7 billion compared to $5.5 billion in the fourth-quarter. CFO Lewis Booth said Friday the auto maker will burn less cash this year than the $21.2 billion it used up in 2008.

Building on his recent buy rating for Ford, Patrick Archambault, an auto analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co., kicked up his price target Monday morning to $7 from $6, though he warned the company’s improving balance sheet could be sideswiped by a Chrysler or GM bankruptcy.

Investing in Ford could be “the best way to play a significant structural shift in the industry which we expect to eliminate significant excess capacity and redraw markets share due to a diminished presence from GM and Chrysler,” he wrote.

Himanshu Patel at J.P. Morgan, who has a neutral rating on Ford, also concluded that the valuation of Ford stock may be in excess of $6, though he was more cautious in his forecast.
Mr. Archambault also noted Ford’s improved net pricing gain, or the auto maker’s improving ability to sell its cars and trucks at high prices, signals its strategy to sell fewer but less heavily discounted vehicles is working.

His bullish analysis though was tempered somewhat by Credit Suisse’s Christopher J. Ceraso, who wrote Ford still needs to “reverse its history of market share erosion in the US to justify a price above $4/share, in our view.”

Brian A. Johnson at Barclays Capital echoed that skepticism, writing that “while we see recent actions to strengthen its balance sheet and reduce structural costs as positives for Ford, we are skeptical of the recent run-up in stock price, as we are concerned that Ford could potentially take additional actions that could lead to further dilution.”

Ford’s stock has risen from a low of $1.26 on Nov. 19, the day after the first bailout hearing in Washington, to $5 on Friday.

About Auto Industry Tracker

The car industry, particularly Detroit’s GM, Ford and Chrysler, is going through a time of significant change and upheaval. Keep track of the latest news with dispatches from the reporters in WSJ’s Detroit bureau. Please post your comments on the blog, or email us at autoshow@wsj.com.